CTC (TV station) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Television station

A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...

in Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

, the capital city of Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The station was the tenth to begin transmission in regional Australia, and the 26th station in Australia as a whole.

Origins

The station's history can be traced back to 19 May 1958, when Canberra Television Limited (or CTL), a public company

Public company

This is not the same as a Government-owned corporation.A public company or publicly traded company is a limited liability company that offers its securities for sale to the general public, typically through a stock exchange, or through market makers operating in over the counter markets...

, was formed by executives of The Federal Capital Press of Australia Pty. Ltd. (owner of The Canberra Times

The Canberra Times

The Canberra Times newspaper was founded in 1926 in Canberra, Australia by Arthur Shakespeare.It was the second paper to be printed in the city, the first being The Federal Capital Pioneer. The paper was sold to the Fairfax group in the 1960s by Arthur Shakespeare on the condition that it continue...

newspaper) and Canberra Broadcasters Pty. Ltd. (owner of local radio station 2CA

2CA

2CA is a commercial radio station on the AM band in Canberra, Australia, which originally began broadcasting on 1050 kHz changing to 1053 kHz in 1978. 2CA has had many owners since its inception and is currently jointly owned by regional radio operators the Capital Radio Network and Grant...

). Both companies injected GB£

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

45,000 (A$

Australian dollar

The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...

A90,000) into the business in order to apply for the Canberra-area commercial television license. The first chairman of the newly formed company was Arthur Shakespeare

Arthur Shakespeare

Arthur Thomas Shakespeare was an Australian journalist and newspaper editor, best known for founding the Australian Capital Territory's most widely-circulated commercial newspaper, The Canberra Times...

, founder of The Canberra Times.

Alongside four other applicants, CTL submitted their licence application to the Australian Broadcasting Control Board

Australian Broadcasting Control Board

The Australian Broadcasting Control Board was an Australian government agency whose main roles were to regulate broadcasting, radiocommunications and telecommunications...

in April 1959. The company went public in September of the same year, on the Australian Stock Exchange

Australian Stock Exchange

The Australian Securities Exchange was created by the merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange in July 2006. It is the primary stock exchange group in Australia....

in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, offering 100,000 shares which were immediately oversubscribed, ending up with a total subscribed capital of GB£300,000 (A$600,000). The two key shareholders in CTL made an agreement with all other shareholders that all shares were to be bought back in the event that they were unsuccessful in their licence bid — they need not have worried, since after a hearing of considerable length, the ABCB decided to grant CTL the licence in November 1960. The callsign for the station was to be CTC and the new service was to transmit on VHF7.

Prior to the acquisition of the licence, CTL needed to find suitable sites for both a studio and a transmitter. Initially, Mount Ainslie (approximately 10 km north-east of Canberra's city centre, at an elevation of 842 m above sea level) was considered as a potential transmitter site. It was turned down, however, because it was already under the control of the Department of Civil Aviation (who would be unwilling to surrender or lease the site due to its proximity to the Airport and the Air Force base). It was also determined that a transmitter located atop Mount Ainslie would not provide ample coverage of the entire Canberra area (notable black-spots would have included the Woden

Woden Valley

Woden Valley is a district of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. Its name is taken from the name of a nearby homestead owned by Dr James Murray who named the homestead after the Old English god Woden in October 1837. He named it this as he was to spend his life in the pursuit of wisdom and...

and Belconnen

Belconnen

Belconnen is a district of Canberra, the capital city of Australia, comprising 25 suburbs with 29,900 dwellings housing 82,247 people of the 311,518 people in the Australian Capital Territory ....

districts), nor would there be enough room for the ABC's television transmitter (whose service was due to commence in December 1962) as well as CTC. Other sites considered included Mounts Gray, Bowning, Ginini and Bull's Head.

Ultimately, the site chosen for both the transmitter and the studio was Black Mountain, approximately 5 km west of the city centre at 812 m above sea level. Extensive tests from the site proved that it was the ideal location for the transmitter, with signals adequately covering the Canberra area. The ABC also decided to place their transmitter atop Black Mountain — both would be perched atop guyed masts (as opposed to towers) with each rising to 126 metres and 152 metres, respectively. ABC's studio would be located in Canberra city proper. In order to access the transmitters and studio, a road needed to be built up to the summit — construction commenced in July 1961. CTL were granted the lease to the Black Mountain site on 26 September 1961.

The studio complex, which, in later years, would be affectionately known as 'the tin shed' was planned, designed and constructed by Civil and Civic Pty. Ltd. over a period of 28 weeks (from September 1961 – March 1962) at a total cost of £77,912 (A$155,824). Occupying a 9400 square metre (101,000 square feet) site, the complex featured a 140-square-metre studio area and was fitted out with RCA

RCA

RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

equipment — two 4½" image orthicon cameras were purchased for use in the studio at a cost of £8,000 (A$16 000) each. The transmitter (whose mast was erected in March 1962) was custom-designed by Co-El of Italy, and the mast EPT Limited in Sydney.

Opening Night

By April 1962, both the studio and transmitter was completed and the first test patterns were transmitted. On 23 May 1962 at 5:45 p.m., the first live test transmission took place with the Safety Bureau Officer, Senior Constable T. A. M. Cooper presenting a 13-minute public service announcement on the proper use of fireworks.

Although CTC7 commenced transmission at 6 p.m. on 2 June 1962 with various program promotions and a documentary on the construction of the CTC studios, the official opening was not to take place until 7 p.m. — as well as Postmaster-General

Postmaster-General's Department

The Postmaster-General's Department was created at Federation in 1901 to control all postal services within Australia. Its minister was the Postmaster-General. In mid-1975 it was disaggregated into the Australian Telecommunications Commission and the Australian Postal Commission...

Davidson, CTL chairmen A. T. Shakespeare, Sir Patrick McGovern and station manager George Barlin also assisted with the opening proceedings. An introduction to CTC's on-screen personalities was followed by a news summary. Viewers were then treated to a film of the Queen's Birthday Procession from the military barracks at Duntroon (filmed earlier that day), followed by an hour of variety with The B.P. Super Show hosted by Margaret Fonteyn. The detective series Michael Shayne made its premiere on CTC then a kinescope of the opening ceremony was screened. The first night's programming concluded with an epilogue and a preview of the following day's programmes before ending transmission at 10:30 p.m.

1980s to 1990s

Current Seven Network

Seven Network

The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

chairman Kerry Stokes

Kerry Stokes

Kerry Matthew Stokes AC is an Australian businessman. He holds business interests in a diverse range of industries including electronic and print media, property, mining, and construction equipment. He is most widely known as the chairman of the Seven Network, one of the largest broadcasting...

owned the station until 1987, when he sold it to Charles Curran

Charles Curran

Charles Curran may refer to:* Charles Curran , British Conservative politician, MP for Uxbridge 1959–1966* Charles Curran , BBC Director-General 1969–1977...

. Curran changed the station's name to Capital Television in 1988, and used a version of Network Ten's logo of the time, and prepared for aggregation. Southern NSW and the ACT were the first licence area that was aggregated, and this took place in two stages during 1989. The first stage saw Capital begin transmission in Wollongong

Wollongong, New South Wales

Wollongong is a seaside city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the narrow coastal strip between the Illawarra Escarpment and the Pacific Ocean, 82 kilometres south of Sydney...

and South Coast

South Coast, New South Wales

The South Coast refers to the narrow coastal belt from Sydney in the north to the border with Victoria in the south in the south-eastern part of the State of New South Wales, Australia. It is bordered to the west by the coastal escarpment of the Southern Tablelands, which is largely covered by a...

, and the second stage, which was caused by technical programs in the Orange

Orange, New South Wales

Orange is a city in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney, at an altitude of . Orange has an estimated population of 39,329 and the city is a major provincial centre....

and Wagga

Wagga Wagga, New South Wales

Wagga Wagga is a city in New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, and with an urban population of 46,735 people, Wagga Wagga is the state's largest inland city, as well as an important agricultural, military, and transport hub of Australia...

areas, took place later in the year.

Capital took on an original logo in 1990, with a modified version of Network Ten

Network Ten

Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...

's identification. This remained until 1994 when Southern Cross Broadcasting

Southern Cross Broadcasting

Southern Cross Broadcasting Limited was a diversified Australian media company, that owned and operated a variety of media businesses, primarily radio and television.-History:...

purchased the station and renamed it Ten Capital.

News & Current Affairs

Ten Capital News was the station's local news service, aired on the station for almost 40 years until its axing at the end of 2001. For a time, the bulletin was also shown across the entire southern NSW license area, before it was scaled back to Canberra

Canberra

due to low ratings. Local news was reintroduced to the station in 2004 in the form of three-minute updates at various times of the day. These updates are presented by Amy La Porte.

A local current affairs program, State Focus, is shown at 8.30am on Sundays, presented by Guy Sweeting from the network's Canberra-based studios.

Main Transmitters

Region served	City	Channels Channel (broadcasting) In broadcasting, a channel is a range of frequencies assigned by a government for the operation of a particular radio station, television station or television channel. In common usage, the term also may be used to refer to the station operating on a particular frequency.-See also:*Broadcast... (Analog Analog television Analog television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal: one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal... / Digital Digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals... )	First air date	ERP Effective radiated power In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains... (Analog/ Digital)	HAAT Height above average terrain Height above average terrain is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is actually much more important than effective radiated power in determining the range of broadcasts... (Analog/ Digital)¹	Transmitter Coordinates	Transmitter Location
Canberra Canberra Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...	Canberra Canberra Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...	7 (VHF Very high frequency Very high frequency is the radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted High frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Ultra high frequency... ) 6 (VHF Very high frequency Very high frequency is the radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted High frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Ultra high frequency... )	2 June 1962	200 kW 50 kW	345 m 335 m	35°16′32"S 149°5′52"E	Black Mountain Black Mountain (Australian Capital Territory) Black Mountain is situated close to the central business district of Australia's capital city Canberra. Like all major hills in Canberra it is protected from development by the Canberra Nature Park. It is covered in native bushland and is a haven to native wildlife.With its peak at 811.987m AHD,...
Central Tablelands Central Tablelands The Central Tablelands in New South Wales is an area that is between the Sydney Metropolitan Area and the Central West Slopes and Plains. This area has a part of the Great Dividing Range running through it, including the Blue Mountains...	Orange Orange, New South Wales Orange is a city in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney, at an altitude of . Orange has an estimated population of 39,329 and the city is a major provincial centre....	33 (UHF Ultra high frequency Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres... ) 43 (UHF Ultra high frequency Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres... )	30 December 1989	2000 kW 570 kW	627 m 628 m	33°20′32"S 148°59′1"E (analog) 33°20′31"S 148°58′59"E (digital)	Mount Canobolas Mount Canobolas Mount Canobolas, at an altitude of above sea level, is the highest mountain in the central tablelands district of New South Wales, Australia.The mountain is of volcanic origin...
Central Western Slopes	Dubbo	35 (UHF Ultra high frequency Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres... ) 46 (UHF Ultra high frequency Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres... )	30 December 1989	1000 kW 150 kW	648 m 653 m	31°20′32"S 149°1′22"E	Mount Cenn Cruaich
Illawarra Illawarra Illawarra is a region in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is a coastal region situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the Shoalhaven or South Coast region. It encompasses the cities of Wollongong, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven and the town of Kiama. The central region contains Lake... & Regional Sydney Sydney Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...	Wollongong Wollongong, New South Wales Wollongong is a seaside city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the narrow coastal strip between the Illawarra Escarpment and the Pacific Ocean, 82 kilometres south of Sydney...	62 (UHF Ultra high frequency Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres... ) 37 (UHF Ultra high frequency Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres... )	31 March 1989	950 kW 250 kW	619 m 600 m	34°37′23"S 150°41′39"E (analog) 34°37′8"S 150°41′49"E (digital)	Knights Hill
South Western Slopes South West Slopes, New South Wales The South West Slopes is a region predominantly in New South Wales, Australia. It covers the lower inland slopes of the Great Dividing Range extending from north of Cowra through southern NSW into western Victoria... and Eastern Riverina Riverina The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales , Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation. This combination has allowed the Riverina to develop...	Wagga Wagga	35 (UHF Ultra high frequency Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres... ) 51 (UHF Ultra high frequency Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres... )	30 December 1989	1600 kW 600 kW	525 m 540 m	34°49′13"S 147°54′5"E	Mount Ulandra Mount Ulandra Mount Ulandra is a 761-metre-high mountain approximately 25 kilometres south-west of the New South Wales town of Cootamundra, Australia, and 4 kilometres south-east of Bethungra. The mountain is within the Ulandra Nature Reserve. Atop the mountain are telecommunications towers, including television...

Notes:

1. HAAT
Height above average terrain
Height above average terrain is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is actually much more important than effective radiated power in determining the range of broadcasts...

estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.

Origins

Opening Night

1980s to 1990s

News & Current Affairs

Main Transmitters

See also